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Thursday, 23 July 2009

Rabbis and mayors arrested in New Jersey raids

Several rabbis were among 30 people including politicians arrested in an FBI investigation into public corruption and money laundering in New Jersey.

Those held by the FBI in a morning sweep across the state included Peter Cammarano, who took office only three weeks ago as mayor of Hoboken, near New York City, as well as Dennis Elwell, mayor of Secaucus, and Leona Beldini, the deputy mayor of Jersey City.

Federal prosecutors, who described the alleged money laundering as "high volume", said several rabbis from affluent Syrian Jewish enclaves in New York and New Jersey were also arrested.

The arrests followed a two-year investigation by the FBI and the Inland Revenue Service that is understood to have initially focused on money transfers by Syrian Jews in Deal, New Jersey, and Brooklyn.

Investigators also removed boxes of papers from the Deal Yeshiva, a prestigious religious school which teaches children in the Sephardic Jewish tradition, and from a nearby synagogue.

Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark who has fought corruption in New Jersey's largest city, described the events as "unbelievable".

"When I open the police files I find detailed reports about Jewish criminals. The archives have enough material for 100 historians and for 100 years, and even then they won't finish." -- Haartez News. Jerusalem, Tuesday, November 2, 2004